First, don’t forget to go leave a comment on Wednesday’s post Guess the Movie and Pay It Forward to win a book!  You don’t have to guess the movies - any comment will be eligible.  You need to post by tonight (Friday, Feb 8th) midnight central.

Now, for today’s post.  RUSH

Recently, I got some great news — Rush, one of my all-time favorite bands, extended their Snakes and Arrows tour!  This is awesome, because I missed them the first time around.

Then, I got even better news!  Rush is actually coming to Austin!  Although the Metro Austin Area is not too small population-wise (over a million), we hardly ever get my favorite acts.  They usually hit Dallas, Houston or San Antonio because those cities are so much bigger and I guess the bands figure Austinites can carpool over or ride their bike or hitchhike.  I’m also sure venue size has something to do with it - we don’t really have places like Reliant Stadium or Verizon Wireless Stadium to host huge acts.

You’d think I’d be a pretty happy camper.  I was.  I was indeed.  That is, I was until a good friend of mine said “oh and by the way, I got us tickets during the presale.”

Señior, you had me at el “oh”.

So how happy do you think I was when he said he scored Row 3 in section 1?  We both were like “oh, so does Frank Erwin center have those demon AA rows or “1A” section where you THINK you’re sitting in a great place but they end up catering to someone else in an even “better” section than 1?” and “pinch me so I know it’s real” and “dude, stop pinching me, I’m not that good of a friend”

Take a look at the arena (updated to correct seating chart - thanx Dave for finding):

Here’s what I’m thinking.  I’m thinking this person and I… we’re pretty good friends, known each other a long time, godfathers of each others kids, etc.   I’d probably not only help him move if he needed me, but I’d probably help him move a body.  I always thought we were pretty close.

But after I saw that he got these for face value and they’re selling like crazy, now I know we’re close.   How close?  Just look how close:

The guy could make a clean $400 per ticket if he wanted to.  (Now that I think about it, maybe he doesn’t know… hmm, probably safer if I don’t tell him until AFTER the tickets come in.) 

If anyone tells me again that the economy is bad, I’m gonna shove this JPEG right up their nose.  There are PLENTY of jobs and money to go around if the market can bear this kind of cash for Rush.  Some of the tickets are $1000!  We’re not talking Hanna Montana, Nickelback, Metallica or a band who has uber multigenerational draw - we’re talking about Rush.    Rush draws geeks, nerds, engineers, and musicians.  Rush has smart people listen to them.  Smart people don’t overpay for tickets.

maybe, JUST MAYBE, i would cough up $500 for a ticket if they brought frank sinatra back from the dead.

$500 for RUSH?

what is the world coming to??

I hate to comment but Rush is my least-favorite band of all-time. I hear they’re very good technically, but the lead singer just drives me crazy. It’s like fingernails on a chalkboard for me.

That being said, I’m glad you get to see your favorite band.

I wouldn’t pay $500 to see anyone, but I’m not a big concert fan. Well, maybe U2.

Your using concert ticket prices as a litmus test for the state of the nation’s economy had me laughing for ten solid minutes… thank you for that!

I feel compelled to insert basic economic principles here about the law of supply and demand… which hold true in any economic conditions, good or bad… but this is so pricelessly entertaining that I just cannot bring myself to do it!

Don’t ever change Wayne. I love you just the way you are!

And, for the right seats, I would gladly pay $1000 to see Depeche Mode in concert… even if the economy were so bad that I had to sell my car to do it.

Saw Rush a couple of times in Austin. As you know, Miles is obsessed with Rush. It’s his religion. Neil Peart is his idol and god. Of course, Miles plays the drums. he always used to make me sit in the weird seats so he could focus exclusively on Peart.

RUSH IS HERE IN MY AREA RIGHT NOW, I THINK. THE RADIO SAID SO.

But, I donut have tickets. I iz sad.

Sizzle, I’d join you to bring the great one back. Sometimes I stick my mp3 player on just Sinatra for a couple of hours.

ajooja, I think I just threw up in my mouth a little. Oh, and I think my wife fell in love with you a little.

Avi, I only recently started slightly enjoying U2. They were at their peak when all my friends were into them and I never “got it”. And I had several opportunities to see them, back then, up close.

Dave2, I probably should take this time to state that my salary is a lot higher than it was 8 years ago, so thank you President Bush for the great economy.

wait, wait, I got more. I love being a comedian!

The number of children I have increased by 100%, and I didn’t scramble to figure out how to feed, diaper, clothe and shelter my 2nd kid like I did the first. All Hail Bush!

For 2007 I got a 3x growth in my 401(k). What a great country!

Since Bush’s inauguration, we’ve had incredible advances in technology like Wordpress, MySpace, Twitter, iPhone, dual core CPUs, blogography, ubiquitous broadband, multi-gig SD cards, awesome digital cameras and perfect human cloning (that last one hasn’t been made public yet, but how else do you explain Britney, Lohan, Aguillera, Paris, Ritchie and Simpson?).

I’d probably donate to your perfect Depeche Mode seats, so if you start a charity drive, let me know. It’d be Davepeche Mode, which is French for Dave’s Fashion News. Hey, maybe you could have a special shirt sale charity to earn enough money to get Depeche Mode to do a concert just for you!

PS: Did you see that Bon Jovi is selling VIP tickets to their shows to fans who wanna pay big ($2000) but they actually get to come on stage and dance with Bon Jovi for three songs during the concert?? What a fan experience that would be!

Absurdistas, I might like this “Miles” person if I met him. Sounds like my kind of religious nut. Peart *is* god-like. It’s been > 10 years since Rush has been in Austin, and it. is. about. time.

Poppy, the tone of your post makes me think you might like Rush. Let me guess, is your favorite song Entre Nous?

Wayne, You are so cool!!!! You are going to the concert and don’t have to. I’m inclined to agree with the comment earlier that the singers voice seriously bugs! Thanks for being a great friend and get a rush from Rush

I am so jealous its not even funny. I’m online tomorrow to get tickets for CT.
How much would I pay? Considering I didn’t want to pay The $86 last time, and really upset about the $110 this time, I cant imagine paying $550 a seat. My friend wants front row bad, enough to try to convince me to shell out $800 last time around, and this time not only seat money but travel to Toronto as well. I think I’ll pass on both those

[...] blogged before about one of my all-time favorite artists coming to town and the awesome tickets he got for us (don’t forget, I’m Uber Awesome, in front of [...]

I PAID 300.00 FOR 2 FRONT ROW SEATS FOR RUSH IN SARATOGA. THEY ARE OFF TO THE SIDE. FRONT ROW CENTER ARE ON SALE FOR 1000.00. THESE INTERNET TICKET SALES SITES BUY ALL THE BEST SEATS AND RESELL THEM AT CRAZY PRICES. IF THEY DONT SELL THE DAY BEFORE THE SHOW, THEY SELL THEM BACK TO THE VENUE. YOU CAN NOW ALWAYS GET GOOD SEATS THE DAY OF THE SHOW ANYWHERE IF YOU ARE THE FIRST IN LINE. THE VENUE SELLS THEM AT THE ORIGINAL PRICE.